What 2017 portends for commercial real estate women

Author: Teresa Y. Warren

The Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) San Diego hosted its annual economic insights forum in January, which provided an expert's opinion as to what may be ahead for the U.S. and international economies.

This year's speaker was Spencer Levy, Americas Head of Research for CBRE and a senior member of the company's global research team. It was the second year that Mr. Levy, based in Baltimore, appeared at the forum to speak to a San Diego audience about a variety of issues of particular importance to the commercial real estate industry.

Mr. Levy's presentation was thought-provoking. And while predictions of experts like Mr. Levy may not always turn out to be correct, the information they present challenges their audience to think critically.

As anyone who attends such events knows, the value of the presentation isn't just found in what the speaker says. Rather, it is what the attendees do with the information they received that has lasting impact.

Taylor Flores, vice president of Cultura, a furniture management and facilities design company, gained a new perspective about how she looks at workforce production rates, based on Mr. Levy's observation that overall production rates are down in the workforce due to lack of innovation.

"Our (current day) innovations such as apps, Uber, Airbnb, etc. are currently taking a piece of the pie, not making the pie larger," said Flores. "I thought that was really interesting, and while I'm not personally an engineer who can 'do' anything with that, it definitely made me look at things differently."

Levy also predicted a likely downturn in the U.S. economy in 2019 lasting up to two years. For Lisa Chappelle, vice president of facilities management for Mission Federal Credit Union, that was better news than she anticipated.

"I plan to center on 'recession proofing' my team by focusing on leadership, strategy and all that our team has to offer our organization in good times and bad," said Chapelle. "We'll be stepping up the PR of our workgroup, emphasizing our contributions and concentrating on advancing our skills, experience and education."

Bryal Hilton, design and development planner for Heaviland Landscape Management, is similarly looking ahead optimistically. She is preparing, both professionally and personally, for smart growth. "With a 'small' recession predicted, focus your business toward services and not goods," she says. "Take this time to really focus on what makes you stand out."

At Burger Construction, COO Brian Gates thinks Mr. Levy's insights can help his business in its planning and forecasting, particularly the CBRE researcher's "suggestion of closely watching consumer sentiment indices as a leading indicator of a recession." As with most businesses, said Gates, "we pay close attention to where we are in the economic cycle, and this information will support us in our cycle strategy."

For Natalie Stillman, CFP, CLTC, vice present of financial planning for Hall Private Wealth Advisors, Levy's outlook on a recession also made an impact. "I thought it was interesting how he said it would be better for us to suffer another recession than not go through another one," she said.

"He seemed to feel this was a normal part of a business cycle and expansion would follow. I think we tend to fear the word 'recession,' based on the recent Great Recession, and yet his perspective is that this is a healthy thing."

Flores also took to interest in Levy's advice to detach from the idea of your company selling a product or good because those who sell goods will be at a disadvantage. "Mr. Levy emphasized the need to focus on the overall concept of service versus goods, as goods are a commodity and can be much more affected by political changes, globalization and the economy," she said.

"Our company just went through a major rebranding," Flores added, "to be able to focus on offering just that -- an overall service experience versus selling goods. I think it's something that basically every company can do if they refocus and re-evaluate how they operate."

Teresa Y. Warren is president of TW2 Marketing, which she founded in 1992.